DiversifAI - Diversifying corporate leadership

DiversifAI furthers diversity in corporate leadership, by placing one board member at a time.

Problem Statement

Diverse teams are more competent, yet organizations find building a diverse board of directors a challenge. 

• No curated database for finding diverse board members
• No filters outside of ethnic or gender diversity, although diversity goes further than gender and ethnic backgrounds 
• High friction, high-cost approaches by accounting and recruiting firms
• No streamlined solutions

Opportunity

There are over 3.2 million organizations with a board of directors; at least 50% or 1.6 million will be searching for new diverse board members within the next couple of years. So while still challenging to recruit, there is a vast population, in the millions, of educated, qualified, diverse, potential board members available. 

Solution

THE DiversifAI SOLUTION is A curated board-member to organization matching application offering an AI-based personality analysis for a fast, low-friction solution to onboarding the most value and diversity-add professional.

We know that gender and ethnicity are critical components of diversity that help foster a successful organization. Still, to achieve the highest level of diversity, recruiters should also consider personality traits. So, in addition to offering a large, curated pool of qualified under-represented professionals, DiversifAI cross analyzes personality traits (e.g., big five and disc) of candidates with current team members to help onboard the most value and diversity-add professional.

Competition

While companies, such as LinkedIn, have a sizeable pool of professionals the pool is not curated nor filters for diversity.

Such that: 38% of board positions are filled through an executive search firm, 28% through personal networking or word of mouth, 22% through a nominee identification by a Board committee, and 6% from shareholder suggestions.

Concept Support

1. Increasing focus on research showing that diverse teams are more successful in business – Harvard Business
2. New legislation at a state and federal level requiring board diversity – Bloomberg News Article
3. CEO interest – Forbes
4. Pressure from investors and stakeholders to increase board diversity –  P&I
5. Organizations currently discourage employees to join outside boards. This is likely to change soon, especially for people of color, adding a massive influx of potential credible board members, in the millions. –  New York Times

Case Studies

•Growth by constraining network and tapping into a local population where it could reach critical mass. This critical mass creates the utility needed in network businesses to create the high-quality must-have experience that breeds both user loyalty and word of mouth - LinkedIn, Facebook, Uber 

•Build virality into the product: Referral, double viral loop scheme and easy sharing all incentivize customers to refer as many people as possible by offering a reward for each and every new customer that successfully signs up (via referral) - Airbnb, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Harry’s (shaving brand)

•Leveraging Social Proof is building trust amongst potential customers. Obtain this proof by tapping into a market that is bar bigger and largely formed by the target customer, encouraging your current users to share their experiences, and making the product ‘cool’ and easy to use – Slack, BlueLeaf, Airbnb

• Ex. Repost jobs on LinkedIn and have HR person leverage those connections, and when placed board member posts on their LinkedIn they got hired through a DiversifAI listing.

Funding

I will use initial funding to develop and launch a prototype website as well as build my database.

DiversifAI BENEFITS

For Organizations

• Access qualified board members prospective in minutes, not weeks with DiversifAI's immediate, frictionless process
• Background checked, vetted, high-quality candidates
• Access to the densest curated pool of diverse prospective board members in the USA
• DiversifAI candidates are screened and pre-disposed to board member positions
• Always get fresh leads as candidates need to opt-in to be seen by organizations
• Get cognitive diversity insights with our AI to achieve the highest team IQ and performance

For Candidates

• Represent your communities' interest 
• Leverage years of education, hard work, and experience to help others and be paid well for it.
• Access to the largest pool of board member opportunities directed at under-represented professionals in the United States.
• Significantly increase income with little time commitment through board participation. 
• Ability to participate in multiple boards simultaneously 
• Maintain confidentiality until confirmation.
• Have peace of mind knowing DiversifAI requires companies to offer liability insurance to board members
• No cost to sign up and get placed.
• Access to testimonials from organizations’ current employees and board members

Team

Myself (founder), Tekrevol (tech developers), David Rock from Neuroleadership Institute (first advisor)

I, Daniella Guimaraes aka founder, am a Latinx female with a tech background and a passion for social justice.

I graduated high school at 15 and at the age of 16 got accepted into a top Latin-American engineering university for their mechatronics program. I dropped out 1 year later to pursue opportunities that were a better fit for my personality but never stopped self-educating. Since then I have founded and managed two small businesses that were successful before the pandemic.

I KNOW that we under-represented professionals are a valuable addition to organizations and am tired of the lack of representation in the corporate world. For that reason, I brought DiversifAI to life and we are here to be a part of the solution.

Other ways to support 

•Sharing thoughts and providing feedback

•Joining our board of advisors

•Nominating professionals you think would be great board-members

•Adding your organization name to our supporter's list by emailing [email protected]

•Answering our questionnaire https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/diversifAI

Thank you for your time and support! DiversifAi is on the first leg of a long journey, I hope you'll be a part of the social and corporate diversity progress with us.